Bicycle Mechanics - Handlebar Help Anyone?

Hi anyone and everyone that may or may not read this,

I have a Giant Racer (the simplest/cheapest kind) and want to put some dropped Profile "aero"-bars unto it. However, I use my bike mainly to ride around the city and not in time trial races and would therefore not want to use tri-bars. My question then is, where else can I put the gear levers, as the brake levers will occupy the end of the handlebars? Usually they go at the end of the tri-bars but surely there are some alternatives to this?

I would be extremely grateful if anybody could advice me.

Many thanks,

MM

You can put bar-end shifters at the ends of the drop bars! Lots of us do this on our touring/commuting bikes. Here's a photo (http://bike.toleressea.net/steely_dan_aug2006.jpg) of the bar-end shifters on my bike.

But the combination of brakes on the end of the aero bars and shifters on the drop bars would probably be a very bad combination, since you'd have the move your body position greatly in order to move between brakes and shifters! Aerobars are NOT designed for "tooling around the city" kind of use. They're very comfortable for long flat stretches where you don't have to shift or stop and start too much, but they're not any good in traffic, where you need more balance and the ability move between brakes and shifters frequently.

I think I may only have gotten the lingo wrong. What I meant is that I have aero-wing handlebar (?) as can be seen on this link http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp;jsessionid=7094F1C276DF1515E70FFA672D63C988.tc6?style=10371 So I will put the brakes at the end but wouldn't know where to put the gear lever. Seems to me that mini aero-bars would be the only solution?

Those aren't aerowing handlebars, those are bullhorns. These are aero wing and bullhorns: http://www.gottaridebikes.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/VT_basebar.jpg

You cannot use STI shifters on these nor can you use bar ends. Your only option is either, yes bar end mounted on aerobars are downtube shifters.

Personally, i'd just swap out the bullhorns for a flat or regular drop bars (cheaper than aerobars at any rate). There's ZERO need for aerobars for intercity riding. You'll NEVER be on them.

I suggest moustache handlebars.I suggested it before but my post seems to have dissappeared.

If your frame had the right braze-ons, you could put down tube shifters on it.

But I agree with everyone else, the city is no place for aerobars. Most people who put bullhorns on are riding ss/fixed gear bikes.